Booking an appointment: Dāna and Guidelines
These guidelines have been written by students and practitioners of dāna (Sanskrit for “generosity”) as an offering to other students wanting to learn more about dāna.
Dāna tip of the day:
Dāna leads to abundance and riches
What we give tends to come back around. If we are generous with our families or colleagues, they will tend to be generous back. Emotionally, if we are open to giving love and kindness we are more likely to receive love and kindness from others. One explanation for this is that the open and abundant attitude of the giving tends to welcome generosity back to us from others. Something about being a giving person tends to attract abundance!
How much dāna to offer?
NOTE: the amounts below are in US dollars. We recognize the US dollar is very strong currently; if your income is in a non-US currency please adjust as appropriate.
- $200+ helps Planet Dharma to be more generative, and develop the teaching and the community further. You’ll also be generating merit by supporting the teachers to share time and energy and teachings with people who otherwise might not be able to afford it.
- $100 helps the teachers move to a sustainable level, with some room to begin investing resources. This helps further develop the teaching and community, so that they can become even more valuable for you and others.
- $75 allows the teachers to continue to be dedicated to offering the teachings on the basis of dāna.
- $25 ~ $50 if you are struggling financially and are wondering what is the baseline minimum amount to give as an offering. The teaching is offered by dāna partly so that it is accessible to everyone regardless of their financial situation. If you are genuinely unable to afford this, offer what you can, and make a strong commitment to yourself to “pay it forward” in the future when you are in a better situation.
A short guided practice
- Take a few quiet breaths and center yourself.
- Spend another few moments contacting as best you can a sense of health, strength and abundance (noticing without judgement if this is hard to contact)
- Offer an aspiration (using the below, or your own words).
May this practice of dāna open up a space inside me to learn and receive.
May this gift support the teachers and teachings for the benefit of many other people.
May this gift directly support my own awakening through a strong dāna practice.
This gift, myself the giver, and the teachers are all impermanent – with this in mind I give lightly and generously, for the benefit of all beings! - Now check with your heart and mind what amount feels both consistent with your situation, and expressive of your aspiration. Remember, you are free to offer whatever amount of dāna feels good for you right now.
- Now simply, with a joyful abundant heart aspiring for awakening, and awareness of the preciousness and impermanence of life, enter the amount you choose to offer below, and click the “Donate” button.
Ready to offer dāna and select appointment times?
Note: To further your practice of generosity and Manjusri mind, be sure to let us know the reason for your dana in the comment of the transfer, e.g. ‘Insight retreat’, ‘Private interview with Sensei’, ‘Enlight-Up!’, ‘Online Class XYZ’, etc.